Women’s History Month serves as an opportunity to celebrate the significant and trailblazing achievements of women across various fields, and the solar industry is no exception. Throughout history, women have played a crucial role in advancing affordable, renewable energy, particularly solar power, by driving innovation, expanding career opportunities, and advancing environmental sustainability.
Women have been pivotal in shaping the solar energy sector, allowing it to have the strong foundation it’s had to develop as quickly as it is today. We have looked at a number of leaders actively contributing to energy abundance over the years. Last year, we highlighted solar pioneers like Dr. Maria Telkes — popularly known as “The Sun Queen” — whose specializations in biophysics and physical chemistry made her an integral part of some of the earliest solar technological advancements, such as the solar-powered water desalination machine, heating-system, oven, and even the very first solar-powered home in 1980. Dr. Telkes has had an inspiring legacy, setting the stage for the growing number of women making their mark in solar energy today.
Groundswell strives to center our community solar and resilience efforts on uplifting neighbors. This year, we are highlighting Nicole Hernandez Hammer, an environmental justice advocate and climate change expert whose extensive research and publications surrounding sea-level rise projections and other increasingly glaring climate change impacts have guided U.S. awareness and preparedness in the face of our ever-evolving environmental condition. Hernandez’s career stands out, as her outreach specifically supports and mobilizes low-income communities and communities of color across the United States, recognizing the unique position such communities are in, experiencing disproportionate effects of climate change. Her life’s work — lighting the way for us to reverse the adverse impacts of an impending climate disaster — even earned her an invitation as a special guest at the 2015 State of the Union address.
The solar industry has emerged over the last couple of decades as the leading employer of women out of the greater renewable energy sector. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, by 2021 the solar industry employed 4.3 million people, accounting for one-third of all renewable energy jobs worldwide, of which women make up 40% of the workforce. Within that percentage is a variety of roles that women have fared increasingly well in, especially solar administrative positions that are comprised of 58% women, solar photovoltaic manufacturing (where women represent 47% of the workforce), providing service and development work (where they make up approximately 38%), and solar installers with 12%. In all, this Women’s History Month, we celebrate the immeasurable contributions of many female solar visionaries and innovators who have played a key role in driving the transformative advancements that have fueled the solar industry's success over the years.
Solar energy is a limitless resource, and it can therefore also be made inclusive and accessible to everyone.